The loss of life to infants and children naturally captures national attention. Every year, a considerable and troubling number of infants, children and pets are injured and/or die due to heat related trauma (heat stroke or hyperthermia). Infants, small children and pets are intentionally or unintentionally left, or become trapped by playing, inside the passenger compartment of a family automobile and suffer from heat exposure.
The number of hyperthermia fatalities of children left in motor vehicles in the United States from the year 1998 to 2004 has been reported as 230 fatalities. Also, the number of heat exposure incidents including serious injuries raises this number even higher. A child's body temperature increases three to five times faster than an adult's and children are not able to dissipate heat as efficiently as adults. Heatstroke occurs when the body core temperature reaches 104 degrees F. The results can include permanent organ damage and death. A body core temperature of 107 degrees F. is considered lethal.
Child heatstroke deaths are not limited to hot-weather places and states. Previous research and real-world incidents have demonstrated that on a warm, sunny day, even at temperatures as mild as 60 degrees Fahrenheit, a closed vehicle can rise to dangerous temperatures in just a few minutes and can be lethal. Further, studies have shown that when substituting humid heat for dry heat, injury or death can occur in half the time. The atmosphere and windows of a motor vehicle are relatively transparent to the sun's shortwave radiation and are warmed little. The shortwave energy does however warm objects that it strikes. These objects (e.g., dashboard, steering wheel, childseat) give off longwave radiation, which is efficient at warming the air trapped inside a vehicle. A car's interior can reach 100 degrees within five minutes, and 120 degrees in fifteen minutes, when the outside temperature is only in the high 70s.
Just as with people, heat stroke in pets can cause nausea, loss of consciousness, irreparable brain damage, and death. Pets, more so than humans, are susceptible to overheating. Dogs, for example, are designed to conserve heat. Their sweat glands, which exist on their nose and the pads of their feet, are inadequate for cooling during hot days. Panting and drinking water helps cool them, but if they only have overheated air to breathe, dogs can suffer brain damage and organ damage after just fifteen minutes. Further, if a dog is accustomed to being inside, it is more prone to heatstroke. Brachiocephalic breeds, such as pugs or bulldogs are unable to efficiently regulate their body temperature and are even more susceptible to overheating.
To protect infants and children in motor vehicles, Federal and state authorities have enacted laws (i.e. Federal Motor Vehicle Standard 213). Children under a specified age may not be left unattended in a motor vehicle. Further, all states of the United States and the District of Columbia have enacted child restraint laws. Additionally, all children below a specified age and weight, when riding in a motor vehicle, must ride in an approved child safety seat.
However, even with the enacted laws, in the most recent three-year period of 2002 to 2004, when young children are now placed in rear seats instead of front seats, there has been a ten-fold increase in fatalities from hyperthermia as compared to the rate of the early 1990s. Recently, passenger occupant detection is being utilized for characterizing an occupant and selectively suppressing deployment of a vehicular inflatable restraint. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,850,825, entitled, Method for suppressing deployment of an inflatable restraint based on sensed occupant weight, assigned to Delphi Technologies, Inc. Employing a form of occupant detection to save the lives of infants, children and pets would be useful.